Artistic Proofs: A Kantian Approach to Aesthetics in Mathematics
Vědecký článek
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Trvalý odkaz
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11956/111195Identifikátory
Kolekce
- Číslo 2 [7]
Autor
Datum vydání
2019Nakladatel
Univerzita Karlova, Filozofická fakultaZdrojový dokument
Estetika: The Central European Journal of Aesthetics (web)ISSN: 2571-0915
Rok vydání periodika: 2019
Ročník periodika: 2019
Číslo periodika: 2
Odkaz na licenční podmínky
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/Klíčová slova (anglicky)
Kant I., mathematical beauty, taste, imaginationThis paper explores the nature of mathematical beauty from a Kantian perspective.
According to Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment, satisfaction in beauty is subjective
and non-conceptual, yet a proof can be beautiful even though it relies on concepts.
I propose that, much like art creation, the formulation and study of a complex
demonstration involves multiple and progressive interactions between the freely original
imagination and taste (that is, the aesthetic power of judgement). Such a proof is artistic
insofar as it is guided by beauty, namely, the mere feeling about the imagination’s free
lawfulness. The beauty in a proof’s process and the perfection in its completion together
facilitate a transition from subjective to objective purposiveness, a transition that Kant
himself does not address in the third Critique.